And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’S passover.
Exodus 12:11
And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
1 Kings 18:46
Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Jeremiah 1:17
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
Deuteronomy 4:9
Exhortation to Those Who Upon Trial Are Found Sincere, to Wear the Girdle of Truth Close Around, with Directions for Its Daily Exercise, by William Gurnall. The following contains an excerpt from Chapter Seven of his work, “The Christian in Complete Armour.”
Having your loins girt about with truth. Eph. 6:14b
Second Sort. I come to the second sort, such, I mean, whose consciences, upon diligent inquiry, give a fair testimony for their sincerity, that their hearts are true and upright. That which I have by way of counsel to leave with them is, to gird this belt which they have about them, close in the exercise and daily practice of it. Gird this belt, I say, close to thee, that is, be very careful to walk in the daily practice and exercise of thy uprightness. Think every morning thou art not dressed till this girdle be put on. The proverb is true here, ‘Ungirt, unblessed.’ Thou art no company for God, that day in which thou art insincere. If Abraham will walk with God, he must be upright; and canst thou live a day without his company? Rachel paid dear for her mandrakes to part with her husband for them. A worse bargain that soul makes, that to purchase some worldly advantage, pawns its sincerity, which gone, God is sure to follow after. And as thou canst not walk with God, so thou canst not expect any blessing from God. The promises, like a box of precious ointment, are kept to be broken over the head of the upright: ‘Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?’ Micah 2:7. And sure it is ill walking in that way where there is found no word from God to bid us good speed. Some are so superstitious, that if a hare crosseth them, they will turn back, and go no farther that day. But a bold man is he that dares go on when the word of God lies cross his way. Where the word doth not bless, it curseth; where it promiseth not, it threatens. A soul is in its uprightness, approving itself to God, is safe. It is like a traveller going about his lawful business betwixt sun and sun; if any harm, or loss comes to such a soul, God will bear him out. The promise is on his side, and by pleading it he may recover his loss at God’s hands, who stands bound to keep him harmless. See to this purpose Ps. 84:11. But they are directions, not motives, I am in this place to give.
1. Direction. If thou wouldst walk in the exercise of thy sincerity, walk in the view of God. That of Luther is most true, omnia præcepta sunt in primo tanquam capite—all the commands are wrapped up in the first. For, saith he, all sin is a contempt of God; and so we cannot break any other commands, but we break the first. ‘We think amiss of God before we do amiss against God.’ This God commended to Abraham instar omnium—of sovereign use to preserve his sincerity, ‘Walk before me, and be thou upright,’ Gen. 17:1. This kept the girdle of Moses strait and close to his loins—that he was neither bribed with the treasures of Egypt, nor brow-beaten out of his sincerity with the anger of so great a king —‘for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible,’ Heb. 11:27. He had a greater than Pharaoh in his eye, and this kept him right.
(1.) Walk, Christian, in the view of God’s omniscience. This is a girding consideration. Say to thy soul, cave videt Deus—take heed, God seeth. It is under the rose, as the common phrase is, that treason is spoken, when subjects think they are far enough from their king’s hearing; but did such know the prince to be under the window, or behind the hangings, their discourse would be more loyal. This made David so upright in his walking, ‘I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee,’ Ps. 119:168. If Alexander’s empty chair, which his captains, when they met in counsel, set before them, did awe them so, as to keep them in good order; what would it, for to set God looking on us in our eye? The Jews covered Christ’s face, and then buffeted him. So does the hypocrite. He first saith in his heart, ‘God sees not,’ or at least he forgets that he sees; and then makes bold to sin against him, Mark 14:60. He is like that foolish bird which runs her head among the reeds, and thinks herself safe from the fowler;—as if, because she did not see him, therefore he could not see her. Te mihi abscondam, non me tibi. Aug.—I may hide thee from my eye, but not myself from thine. Thou mayest, poor creature, hide God by thy ignorance and atheism, so that thou shalt not see him, but thou canst not so hide thyself as that he shall not see thee. ‘All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Heb. 4:13. O remember thou hast to do with God in all thou doest, whether thou beest in shop or closet, church or market; and he will have to do with thee, for he sees thee round, and can tell from whence thou comest, when, like Gehazi before his master, thou enterest into his presence, and standest demurely before him in worship, as if thou hadst been nowhere. Then he can tell thee thy thoughts, and without any labour of pumping them out by thy confession, set them in order before thee; yea, thy thoughts that are gone from thee, like Nebuchadnezzar’s dream from him, and thou hast forgot what they were at such a time, and in such a place, forty, fifty years ago, God hath them all in the light of his countenance, as atoms are in the beams of the sun, and he can, yea will, give thee a sight of them that they shall walk in thy conscience to thy horror, as John Baptist’s ghost did Herod’s.
(2.) Walk in the view of God’s providence, and care over thee. When God bids Abraham be upright, he strengthens his faith on him, ‘I am God Almighty, walk before me and be thou perfect;’ as if he had said, ‘Act thou for me, and I will take care for thee.’ When once we begin to call his care into question towards us, then will our sincerity falter in our walking before him. Hypocrisy lies hid in distrust and jealousy, as in its cause. If the soul dare not rely on God, it cannot be long true to God. Abraham was jealous of Abimelech, therefore he dissembled with him. Thus do we with God. We doubt God’s care, and then live by our wit, and carve for ourselves. ‘Up, make us gods,’ they say, ‘we know not what is become of Moses.’ The unbelieving Jews, flat against the command of God, keep manna while i.e. until the morrow, Ex. 16:19. And why? but because they had not faith to trust him for another meal. This is the old weapon the devil hath ever used to beat the Christian out of his sincerity with. ‘Curse God and die,’ said he to Job by his wife. As if she had said, What! wilt thou yet hold the castle of thy sincerity for God? Captains think they may yield when no relief comes to them, and subjects account that if the prince protect them not, they are not bound to serve him. Thou hast lain thus long in an afflicted state, besieged close with sorrows on every hand, and no news to this day comes from heaven of any care that God takes for thee; therefore ‘curse God, and die.’ Yea, Christ had him using the same engine to draw him off his faithfulness to his Father, when he bade him turn stone into bread. We see, therefore, of what importance it is to strengthen our faith on the care and providence of God, for our provision and protection, which is the cause why God hath made such abundant provision to shut all doubting and fear of this out of the hearts of his people. The promises are so fitly placed, that as safe harbours, upon what coast soever we are sailing—condition we are in—if any storm arise at sea, or enemy chase us, we may put into some one or other of them, and be safe; though this one were enough to serve our turn, could we find no more: ‘For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them,’ or strongly to hold with them, ‘whose heart is perfect toward him,’ II Chr. 16:9. God doth not set others to watch, but his own eyes keep sentinel. Now to watch with the child, like the own mother, there is the immediacy of his providence. We may say of sincere souls, what is said of Canaan, Deut. 11:12, ‘It is a land,’ so they are a people, ‘which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always on them.’ Again, ‘his eyes run to and fro;’ there is the vigilancy of his providence. No danger, no temptation, finds him napping; but, as a faithful watchman is ever walking up and down, so the eyes of God ‘run to and fro.’ ‘He that keepeth Israel’—the sincere soul which is the ‘Israelite indeed’—shall neither slumber nor sleep,’ Ps. 121:4. That is, not little or much—not slumber by day, or sleep by night. Two words are there used; one that signifies the short sleep used in the heat of the day; the other for the more sound sleep of the night.
(3.) Throughout the whole earth, there is the universality and extent of God’s care. It is an encompassing providence; it walks the rounds—not any one sincere soul left out the line of his care. He has the number of them to a man, and all are alike cared for. We disfigure the beautiful face of God’s providence, when we fancy him to have a cast of his eye, and care, to one more than another.
(4.) To show himself strong in the behalf of them, there is the efficacy of his care and providence. His eyes do not ‘run to and fro’ to espy dangers, and only tell us what they are; as the sentinel wakes the city when any enemy comes, but cannot defend them from their fury. A child may do this, yea, the geese did this for Rome’s capitol. But God watcheth not to tell us our dangers, but to save us from them. The saints must needs be a ‘happy people,’ because a ‘people saved by the Lord,’ Deut. 33:29. God doth not only see with his eyes, but also fights with his eyes. He gave such a look to the Egyptians, as turned the sea on them to their destruction.
2. Direction. If thou wouldst walk in the exercise of thy sincerity, labour to act from love, and not fear. O, slavish fear and sincerity cannot agree. If one be in the increase, the other is always in the wane. See them opposed, II Tim. 1:7, ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,’ that is, sincere, where he implies that fear is weak, and impotent— easily scared from God, his truth, and service; and not so only, but unsound also —not trusting such a one with any great matter. The slave though he works hard, because indeed he dares no other, yet is soon drawn into a conspiracy against his master, because he hates him while he fears him. We see this not only among the Turks—against whom those Christians used as absolute slaves by them in their galleys do, when they have advantage in sight, often purchase their own liberty by cutting the throats of their tyrant masters—but also in kingdoms, where subjects rather fear than love their princes. How ready they are to invite another into the throne, or welcome any that should court them! Thus fast and loose will he be with God, that is pricked on with the sword’s point of his wrath, and not drawn with the cords of his love. Israel is an example beyond parallel for this, ‘When he slew them, then they sought him;…nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues; for their heart was not right with him,’ Ps. 78:34,36. They feared God, and loved their lusts, and therefore they betrayed his glory at every turn into their hands; as Herod did the head of John, whom he feared, into her hands whom he loved. And truly there is too much of this slavish fear to be found in the saints’ bosoms, or else the whip should not be so often in God’s hand. We find God checking his people for this, and make their servile spirit the reason of his severity towards them. ‘Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?’ Jer. 2:14. As if God had said, What is the reason I must use thee, who art my dear child, as coarsely as if thou wert a servant, a slave, laying on blow after blow upon thy back with such heavy judgments? wouldst thou know, read ver. 17. ‘Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way?’ Thou mayest thank thyself for this my unusual dealing with thee. If the child will forget his own ingenuity, and nothing but blows will work with him, then the father must deal with his child according to his servile spirit. When God led Israel by the way, as a father his child, lovingly, he flung from him; and if they would not lead by love, then no wonder he makes them drive by fear. O Christian, act more by love, and thou wilt save God’s putting thee into fear with his whip. Love will keep thee close and true to him. The very character of love is, it ‘seeketh not her own, I Cor. 13:5; and what is it to be sincere, but when the Christian seeks Christ’s interests, and not his own? Jonathan loved David dearly. This made him incur his father’s wrath, trample on the hopes of a kingdom which he had for him and his posterity, rather than be false to his friend. Lot delivers up his daughters to the lust of the Sodomites, rather than his guests. Samson could not conceal that great secret, wherein his strength lay, from Delilah whom he loved, though it was as much as his life was worth to blab it to her. Love is the great conqueror of the world. Thus will thy soul be inflamed with love to Christ—set all thy worldly interest adrift, rather than put his honour to the least hazard. Abraham did not more willingly put his sacrificing knife to the ram’s throat to save his dear Isaac’s life, than thou wilt be to sacrifice thy life to keep thy sincerity alive. Love is compared to fire; the nature of which is to assimilate to itself all that comes near it, or to consume them. It turns all into fire or ashes. Nothing that is heterogeneous can long dwell with its own simple pure nature. Thus love to Christ will not suffer the near neighbourhood of anything in its bosom that is derogatory to Christ. Either it will reduce, or abandon it, be it pleasure, profit, or whatever else. Abraham, who loved Hagar and Ishmael in their due place, when the one began to justle with her mistress, and the other to jeer and mock at Isaac, he packs them both out of doors. Love to Christ will not suffer thee to side with anything against Christ, but take his part with him against any that oppose him, and so long thy sincerity is out of danger.
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